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“I remember.” I nodded. “It’sstillreally nice of you.”
“I actually missed him—Noah.” Bryce sounded surprised. “He has a way of making everything seem more normal around here. A kid, his video games and fishing aspirations, you know? Reminds me of a simpler time.”
I nodded. “He’s a good boy.”
He opened the door for me, and we went inside the cool, dark house. “He’s lucky he’s got a great big sister looking out for him.”
I melted a little. “Thank you.” Istillsort of hoped that Boss would shed on Bryce’s suits. But it was hard to be vindictive when he was being so kind to my brother.
“You two!” A blur of red hair and porcelain skin jumped out at us from the kitchen. Olivia Jensen held a giant iced coffee in one hand, her cell phone in the other. “I alreadylovewhat I’m seeing! I need more!”
Bryce looked confused. “What exactly are you seeing, Ms. Jensen?”
“The candid shots from this morning.” She held up her phone. “Sexy.Verysexy.”
His expression turned from confused to wary. “You’ve already taken pictures of us?”
Olivia smiled, not looking the slightest bit sorry. “Yes. Youhaveto see these.” She hustled toward the study, and we followed her.
Bryce looked tense. It occurred to me that I’d never seen him following orders before; he was always the one giving them.
“Here.” Olivia put her drink down on the desk and started tapping on her phone. “Look at these—like I said, hot.”
There were a string of photos from earlier that day. Bryce and I in the jeep, turning off onto the trail. Bryce and I in the clearing, me on his lap. Us in a heated embrace. His arms wrapped around me, biceps bulging. I almost fanned myself—indeed, we looked like a hot couple. It was clear from the photos that, at least physically, we were into each other.
How had they followed us? The island was tiny, quiet. And if they’d taken pictures of us in the clearing, did that mean the hidden cameraman was watching us…the whole time?Yikes.
Bryce’s fingers curled around the phone, looking as though he might crush it. “You followed us? Without my permission?” A vein bulged on the side of his forehead.Uh oh.
“I don’t need your permission,” Olivia said. There was no malice in her voice; she was matter of fact. “The board’s paying me a not-so-small fortune to do this job. They’ve given me free rein to produce the story as I see fit. And Bryce, we already talked about this. You’ve agreed it’s for the best. I’m selling the story of America’s hottest young couple to the public.”
Bryce held up the phone. There was a picture of us on the beach, deep in discussion. “Chloe and I didn’t know we were being followed. We thought we were alone. It’s not okay for you to have the hired help spying on us during a private, intimate moment.”
Olivia crossed her arms against her chest. “I told the team that they were to not allowed to filmorobserve if things between you two got…involved. They’ve signed contracts. They want their jobs—trust me, they aren’t going to breach their agreements.”
“They?”His vein bulged out dangerously.
“Bryce, it’s okay.” I grabbed his hand. “These pictures look great. As long as we know they’re following us now, we’ll be more careful.” I squeezed his hand. “Right?”
He grunted, still staring at Olivia.
“Now thatthat’ssettled,” she said sweetly as she held her hand out for her phone, “we need more content. Alotmore content. I have a romantic dinner staged for you at the restaurant tonight. You’ll take the boat over, sit out on the dock, and have a lovely sunset meal. The public will gobananasover it!”
She checked her watch. “You have a few hours to rest, or whatever it is you want to do. You might want to get yourinvolvementsfor the day attended to, you know what I mean?” With a chuckle, she grabbed her iced coffee and sashayed out.
Bryce gripped my hand. His face was twisted in anger.
“Bryce? Don’t lose it. You look like you’re going to lose it.”
His nostrils flared. “I. Don’t. Want. To be a fucking puppet,” he spat out. “This is my father’s problem. I don’t want us to get dragged into it.”
“But it’syourcompany—your future.” I sighed. He was on my Bad List, but for three million dollars, I should still try to help him calm down. “Anyway, it’s not so bad.” I smoothed his shirt. “All we have to do is go to dinner.”
“There were multiple cameramen, and they saw your ass—not to mention every other thing I was holding onto in that clearing,” he growled.
“They didn’t watch us.” I smoothed his shirt again, but what I was really doing was feeling his big pectoral muscles. “They signed a contract, Bryce. Everything’s okay.” I didn’t know if that was true, but I also didn’t want him losing his mind and beating up the photographers.
I needed to distract him. “Why don’t we go upstairs and relax, huh?” An unmistakable, inconvenient pang issued between my legs.
